Family Affair
by Isabel Night
Summary: One night around dinner, Mia and Anubis talk.


**Disclaimer**-I will never own Mia, Yuli, and/or Anubis. Everyone belongs to his or her respective owners, producers, voice actors, etc.

_Family Affair  
__Isabel Night_

As the sun dipped below the horizon, spreading out her wings of orange, pink, yellow, and red hues, a lone figure stood on the second-story balcony of a whitewashed mansion with red roofing. The person who was looking at the sky was a young man with red-brown hair, blue-green eyes, and who deceptively appeared to be seventeen years old. Sighing as he pushed a strand of hair away from his face, Anubis, who was, in reality, four hundred fifty-five years old, had been watching the sunset and reflecting on his past. "When was the last time I saw the sun sink below the waves?" The youth murmured, sighing as he shook his head. "I have always taken these small things for granted, but now, they seem more precious to me."

"Anubis?" A female voice called out from inside the residence, fittingly named the Koji Manor. "Aren't you going to have anything to eat? I made a one-pot meal for the three of us to share."

"I will be inside in a few minutes, Mia." Anubis responded, not wanting to lose the breathtaking scene he was viewing. "Tell Yuli that he can start if he wishes."

A brown haired blue-eyed female, Mia, as Anubis had addressed her, was walking from the kitchen on the first floor of her family's abode to the second story bedroom. Upon entering the spare chamber, she spotted her guest, the former Warlord of Cruelty and the disciple of the Ancient One, looking at the sky. "It must be strange." Mia smiled, not wanting to startle the man. "You haven't been in this world for over four hundred years, and all that has happened must be too much for you to handle."

"Thank you for your concern Mia, but I believe I will adapt to this new environment."

"Like the time you accidentally crashed my computer? Almost losing some of the data we needed because you didn't know what you were doing. It looks like I'll have to teach you about our "newfangled contraptions," because if I don't, then you will probably destroy everything without meaning to."

"I think, from now on," Anubis sheepishly grinned, "that I will leave the computer up to you. You seem to know what you are doing with that confounded machine more so than me."

Mia chuckled when she saw Anubis smile. The redhead appeared to be serious and distant when he was in the Mortal World, but in a home-like setting with other individuals, she had seen the man come out of his shell. Yuli and the Anubis were getting along well, and the newest resident of the household was more than helpful in doing some of the household chores. _'Maybe staying in this house is the best thing that ever happened to him. Heaven only knows what it must have been like in Talpa's hellhole.'_

"Come on Anubis," Mia urged, taking him by his hand. "Dinner will get cold if we don't go downstairs and..."

"Mia," Anubis began, cutting her off her flow of words. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can, Anubis. What's wrong?"

"Forgive me if this sounds strange, but..." Anubis swallowed, trying not to upset his host. "I remember the last time I saw the sun set in this world; I was with Cale, Sekhmet, and Dais. Is it an insult to them that they are not here to share it?"

"Anubis, don't say things like that. After all that's happened to you, you don't owe the three of them anything."

"You make it sound so simple," Anubis murmured as he shook his head. "...I can walk away from the three of them to save their lives, but they cannot seem to understand that it is better if we are apart."

"Are you talking about what happened at those train tracks? Look, Dais was an idiot for attacking you head-on without thinking; you said so yourself. You defeated him once, and he's not stupid enough to try and attack you again."

"I know, but still...it bothered me."

Mia sighed impatiently. "Anubis, I've said this before. You don't owe Dais, or any of them, a thing. Your past in the Dynasty is gone, and you have a new life now. If they cannot accept that, then it's not your fault. They have to move on with their own-"

"Then is it wrong for me to miss them?" Anubis almost snarled, trying not to let his fiery temper get the better of him.

Now it was Mia's turn to be silent. This monk, a man she had learned to appreciate and help in his quest to overthrow the Dynasty, had brought up the same question that she had been wondering about since her grandfather's death. She loved her father's father greatly, but in the end, he had become nothing more than an expendable pawn for an evil so great that it could threaten the entire Mortal World. While it did matter who ended up winning this conflict, the fact was simply this: she would never see her beloved grandfather until the great _O-Bon_ festival. Even so, was it wrong for her to treasure the memories she once had with him? Even if it was inappropriate, was it also wrong for Anubis, another individual, to treasure the past memories that were important to him? "I...can't really answer that question, Anubis. I wouldn't say that it's wrong, but I've been thinking about that question for a long..."

"It is okay," Anubis smiled, unconsciously silencing her. "I believe mortals are not meant to know everything."

"Thank you," Mia nodded, taking comfort in the fact that she was not alone in her confusion. "I guess you have more in common with human beings than you thought."

"Perhaps I do."

Mia beamed at him, her mood brightening up. "Now, how about we go downstairs and eat. Knowing Yuli, he's probably eaten the whole pot."

_THE END_

**End Notes**-Many thanks go out to Kumo, all my other Beta Readers, readers, and reviewers.


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